No startup disks in System Preferences

Question

...only "Network startup" shows.
I was trying to install a firmware update via OS9 (or so I hoped) onto my pismo so that I could use migration assistant for my new mbp. I had a fw drive attached, with 4 partitions, along with the pismo's hd and its 2 partitions. From the fw drive, I selected an os9.2 system folder to boot from, and the pismo booted up into 9.2 as expected; after restart, the pismo came up in panther however, rather than os9.2. Only after starting up Classic from the fw drive did I get the message the update failed. Next, I copied over the system folder with os9.2 onto the pismo. please note, the os9.2 folder is from a backup of my wife's g4 iBook. When I opened system prefs hoping to select the just-copied system folder as the start up disk - I got nothing, just network startup. No other folders. I just ran applejack to repair permissions, but afterward, still nothing in startup disk.
What did I do, and how can I fix it? Any help appreciated.

Answer 1

Alright - I've run Disk Utility and repaired permissions and now Sys Prefs has found all the volumes on my drive.
At first nothing had changed when I looked in Sys Prefs, and I highlighted the Network icon assuming I could deselect it. I could not. I triple clicked in the space next to the Network icon, and sys prefs seemed to wake up and immediately scanned. I selected the volume I wanted, and closed the lock to prevent changes. I had not clicked in the space before running Disk Utility, so perhaps clicking was all I needed to do, but since the log from DU suggests permissions were repaired, I suspect it was necessary.
Here's the log from Disk Utility. If someone can translate this for me to let me know what was done, I'd be grateful. I assume the glitch was in the system library filesystems line:
Repairing permissions for “Steve's Computer”
Determining correct file permissions.
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays. New permissions are 16893
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./Library/ColorSync/Profiles. New permissions are 16893
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./System/Library/Filesystems/cd9660.fs/cd9660.util. New permissions are 33261
We are using a special uid for the file or directory ./private/var/at/jobs. New uid is 1
We are using a special uid for the file or directory ./private/var/at/spool. New uid is 1
The privileges have been verified or repaired on the selected volume
Permissions repair complete